SAN DIEGO -- Pardon Ron Artest if he's a bit geographically challenged and had no idea that San Diego has a big league baseball team, even though he was wearing a Padres cap.

This much he's sure of -- if his Los Angeles Lakers don't repeat as NBA champions, fans can point their fingers at him.

"They should. That's exactly what should happen if we don't repeat," the star forward said during a visit to promote the Lakers' exhibition game against the Denver Nuggets at the San Diego Sports Arena on Oct. 23.

"They won last year, and I'm the new addition. The fans expect to repeat. Everybody in L.A. expects a second ring. And if we don't then yeah, they should point it right at me, throwing tomatoes and everything."

Artest joined the Lakers as a free agent on July 8, signing a five-year deal worth about $33 million. He is the team's only addition, essentially switching places with Trevor Ariza, who left the Lakers to take Artest's spot with the Rockets.

Artest said he was proud to be making his first promotional appearance for the Lakers. He wore an all-black Kobe Bryant jersey as a tribute to his new teammate.

"It makes me more excited, gives me a better understanding of what jersey I'm actually putting on," Artest said. "So today I decided to wear the black Kobe Bryant jersey, because he is the 'Black Mamba,' and I'm really happy to be a part of this team and I'm really excited just to be an addition, an asset, to the guy, to the [Derek] Fishers and the [Andrew] Bynums and all the rest of the players."

During a wide-ranging news conference at the San Diego Chargers' media trailer, Artest drew some laughs with a few slip-ups.

"I didn't realize how far L.A.'s tentacles, or whatever you want to call them, extend, all the way to San Diego. I thought I was going to be getting some Golden State Warrior fans, because I didn't know where I was at. Most of the fans are Lakers fans, so that's great.

"And I'm also here to say that next year I'll be trying out for the San Diego Chargers, so I look forward to that. Hopefully I can play some baseball. Is there a baseball team here?"

“The fans expect to repeat. Everybody in L.A. expects a second ring. And if we don't then yeah, they should point it right at me, throwing tomatoes and everything.
” -- Ron Artest

You're wearing the hat, he was told.

"I know I'm wearing the hat. I just love the SD. The logo looks great. I didn't realize there was a baseball team in San Diego." (Stupid action.....)

A tough, physical defender, Artest had some spirited moments against Bryant when the Rockets pushed the Lakers to seven games in the second round of the playoffs.

"That was friendship what you saw out there with me and Kobe," Artest said. "That's like hard-core friendship, you know, like back in the days -- fight against your best friend when you were younger and go out and get some ice cream later? That's what that was. It was just so competitive.

"I just knew that my team was going to win. Of course we lost Yao [Ming], which hurt the Rockets. And Kobe wanted to win, and he knew his team was going to win. It was like, 'OK, I know you but I don't care nothing about you, maybe I have to step on your toes and give you a couple of elbows and get you ejected twice, whatever it takes to win, that's what I'm going to do.'"

Artest was ejected from Games 2 and 3 against the Lakers. In Game 2, he received a technical and was ejected after pointing and making a gesture near his throat after complaining that Bryant had elbowed him in the throat under the basket.

Artest was ejected from Game 3 after a flagrant foul on Pau Gasol.

It's all good now that they're all teammates.

"That's what I love about Kobe. He's so tough," Artest said. "He was great when he was younger, but he's much more competitive now. I didn't envision myself playing with him. I always wanted to play against him. I always wanted to beat Kobe Bryant. But I'm more than happy to be playing with Kobe."

A native New Yorker, Artest said he's turning into a West Coast kind of guy.

"I'm learning a lot of different ways of California. Is this Southern California?" he said, apparently not realizing San Diego is as southern as it gets. "It never rains in Southern California, huh? I'm turning into a Southern California guy. I'm happy to be a Southern Californian, or whatever you want to call it."

The Lakers open training camp Sept. 29 at their headquarters in El Segundo.

He is a douche bag...he proved that in Detroit, but he has the kind of toughness the Lakers need.

The same with Rasheed Wallace in Boston...I'm certainly no Sheed fan, but he provides that tough-assed, elbow in the face, controls the boards toughness the C's haven't had since Kevin McHale retired.

If the Celtics stay healthy, the Lakers will have their hands full next spring.

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He so overrated... I'm a Rockets fan..

He chucks up like twenty 3's a game and makes like 2. You Laker fans will grow tired of him and he will KILL your team chemistry.

Sure he brings "toughness" but the con's out weigh the pro's. Trust me. I had NBA league pass last year and had to watch through pain... The only reason we won 50+ games last year was because of Yao and Brooks.

He chucks up like twenty 3's a game and makes like 2. You Laker fans will grow tired of him and he will KILL your team chemistry.

Sure he brings "toughness" but the con's out weigh the pro's. Trust me. I had NBA league pass last year and had to watch through pain... The only reason we won 50+ games last year was because of Yao and Brooks.

"Brandon Roy is the best player i've ever guarded". :lol:

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I'm a Celtic fan not a Laker fan, but I do like the Lakers.

I think Phil Jackson can make Artest at least tractable. You can't discount chemistry, and that just might be what makes him successful...or not...with the Lakers. LA is an altogether different basketball town from Houston...things happen to players when they put on the purple and gold. Chamberlain, Kareem, Shaq, (Malone and Peyton were anomolies and suffered through some disastrous coaching and some disastrous player f***-ups).

It will be interesting to watch...can Kobe and Artest get along? But the real question is will LeBron cede some power and ego to Shaq? I don't think so, and it will be fun to watch how Shaq will get out of playing for large amounts of the season. But who knows....you have to love the drama that is NBA basketball.

You know, the Jailblazer teams were insane!!! Talented, yes, but I mean CooCoo. A book about the stories of that team would be the bestselling sport book ever!

Read these...

medal for enduring what was the worst locker room in all of professional sports. There’s wide speculation among some Blazers employees that Sebastian Telfair was not accidentally carrying that gun on the plane in Boston that day he was busted for a concealed weapon, but that he was carrying the gun all the time because Telfair might have feared the entourage of a couple of teammates who didn’t like him. Maybe he had reason.

Just before he was traded to the Knicks, someone on the gang enforcement team at Portland Police Department told me to pick up the MTV Cribs episode that featured Zach Randolph because the police had a copy, and noticed some disturbing details about the unsavory people who hung around Randolph.

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Whenever the Blazers sign a player to a 10-day contract the equipment manager provides the player with a free set of team-issue luggage. Sort of a welcome gift. Nothing incredibly fancy, but it’s way better than the stuff I have. So Omar Cook is signed a couple of years ago, and the luggage is placed in front of his locker. Cook was flying in from out of town, so he’s not there yet. Ruben Patterson, the team’s registered sex offender, sees the luggage, knows Cook isn’t around yet, and Patterson basically just decides he’s going to abscond the luggage. He just rips the name tags off and takes it. Nobody says a word, either. It’s not anything violent, but it demonstrates the lack of decency and respect that permeated.

Another time, in the visiting locker room in Dallas, I had Rasheed Wallace threaten to punch me after a playoff-game loss. Deadline was approaching, I’m the only writer in the locker room and I’m asking Rasheed questions, and he whips around, and tells me to get out of his space or he’s going to punch me out. At that point, his teammates are all looking to see how I react, and in no way am I going to back down. I’m looking at Rasheed, and thinking if he takes a swing I’m going to try and stuff him into the locker behind him if only because journalists everywhere need me to man up in that situation. Either that, or I’m going to get knocked out and blow my deadline. So I tell him I’m not moving. I just stand there, holding my notepad and recorder, and we’re staring at each other. He eventually storms past me to the shower, and while he’s gone Zach Randolph, a rookie then, leans in to me and says, “When ‘Sheed comes back, make sure you don’t have your back to him. He’ll sucker punch you.” The great irony is that a month later Randolph sucker-punched Ruben Patterson during a practice breaking his eye socket. Someone was holding Patterson’s arms when Randolph threw the haymaker. There was a period of a few days after that incident where Randolph hid out at Dale Davis’ house because he feared that Patterson was going to try and shoot him.

Here’s my favorite story, though. Blazers back-up centers Ha Seung Jin and Nedzad Sinanovic were locked in the Blazers practice facility together for the summer, playing against each other because they needed the work. Ha, who is 7-foot-3, had come back from South Korea out of shape, then was hampered by tendinitis in his knee, and so he’s getting schooled by the 7-foot-4 Sinanovic, from Bosnia.

The two were tussling and tangling on the court. It’s getting pretty heated, and they’re yapping and cussing at each other, most of which neither can understand because of the language differences. And as the players usually do at the end of a workout, the two players were shooting free throws together in silence. Sinanovic went first, then it was Ha’s turn.

Peaceful enough.

That is, until Sinanovic made his final free throw, then retrieved the basketball and held it. I mean, it was like watching kids bicker and fight. Ha walked over and snatched the ball back. Then, Sinanovic said something unkind and two men ended up on the ground in a pile of swinging elbows and fists.

The fight was broken up by Blazers trainers and team managers, who are all about two feet shorter than the two players. Ha, who took a good punch in the face from Ned, was screaming, “I’ll sue! I’ll sue!”

The two were escorted to different areas of the practice facility to cool off. Normally the story would end here. Except Ha’s neutral corner happened to be the team weight room. He picks up one of those long wooden poles that players use to stretch. Ha just comes running out of the weight room swinging the pole and screaming expletives in Korean. He really went after Sinanovic, who blocked one swing with his forearm but took another shot in the ribs before someone ripped the pole (think: closet dowel) from Ha’s hands and threw it across the courts.

If you didn’t have the fight in you before you came to Portland, you soon found it.